Autonomous vehicles, such as vehicles that do not require a human driver, can be used to aid in the transport of passengers or items from one location to another. Such vehicles may operate in a fully autonomous mode where passengers may provide some initial input, such as a pickup or destination location, and the vehicle maneuvers itself to that location.
When a person (or user) wants to be physically transported between two locations via a vehicle, they may use any number of taxi services. To date, these services typically involve a human driver who is given dispatch instructions to a location to pick up and drop off the user. Generally these locations are worked out via physical signals (i.e. flagging down the driver), a phone call where the user explains where he or she actually is, or an in person discussion between the driver and user. In the case of an autonomous vehicle, such coordination is often difficult or impossible to achieve and may lead to significant inconvenience to the passenger in terms of the distance to reach a vehicle or desired destination where the vehicle stops to pick up or drop off a passenger, respectively.